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EEPOET OF THE FOREIGN ARCHIVES COMMITTEE. 
Pbepabed by Albert M. Feikdenbebg, Chairman. 



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Reprinted from 

Pdblications op the 

Ambbican Jewish Historical Society, 

No. 23, 1915. 



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KEPOKT OF THE FOREIGN ARCHIVES COMMITTEE. 
Peepared by Aldebt M. Friedenbebg, Chairman. 

At a meeting of the executive council, held in the autumn 
of 1913, the desirability and feasibility of dealing with the 
different volumes of the series of " Guides " to the material 
of American historical interest preserved in foreign archives, 
published and to appear in the future through the Depart- 
ment of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington, were considered from the point of view of the 
investigator in and the student of American Jewish history. 
At the subsequent meeting of the executive council, on Feb- 
ruary 23, 1914, it was voted to appoint a committee of three 
to deal with the subject, and the sum of two hundred and 
fifty ($250) dollars to cover the necessary expenses of such 
committee was appropriated. The president thereupon named 
as such committee Messrs. Albert M. Friedenberg, chairman, 
Alexander Marx and Leon Hiihner. 

It remains to be added that theretofore the corresponding 
secretary of the Society had, with the approval of the presi- 
dent, made a careful examination of the " Guides " thus far 
published and extracted therefrom a list of items of Jewish 
interest for the use of the committee. Since then I have con- 
tinued this task. The lists in question naturally formed the 
basis upon which the committee has proceeded in its work. 

The most important and by far the greatest number of the 
items relating to American Jewish history are drawn from 
the volumes dealing with the English archives. Some of this 
material, notably that with respect to the naturalization of 
Jews in the American colonies imder the Act of George II, 
has already been utilized by our workers, and incorporated in 
several of the papers appearing in our Publications. It was 

91 



92 American Jewish Historical Society. 

to have been anticipated, however, that much inedited material 
still reposes in these archives, since the colonies of the ante- 
Revolutionary era and the Jews who resided in them, as well, 
bore a more or less direct and an intimate relation to Great 
Britain, For this reason, too, the items of Jewish interest 
bulk so large. 

In a letter from Prof. Charles M. Andrews, of Yale Univer- 
sity, the author or a co-author of several of the published 
" Guides," which he wrote to me under date of March 18, 
1914, it is stated: 

.... As I remember the general nature of such documents as 
related to Jewish history, the contributory value was not very 
great, though I have some hesitation in making even this com- 
ment. There are hundreds of returns of one kind or another that 
may contain more than I know, but to find out what and where 
they are will be no slight task. For example, you cite the Bar- 
badoes Shipping Returns or Naval Office Lists — there are great 
numbers of such lists for all the colonies, and as they usually give 
the name of owner and master it may be that much might be 
gleaned from them. 

The committee has not done more up to this time, in the 
case of the English archives, than to sketch the details of the 
work which remains to be systematically prosecuted. For 
one reason, because the committee deemed it prudent not to 
involve either itself or the Society in an elaborate scheme of 
operations, entailing the expenditure of more considerable 
funds than are at our command. Furthermore, the existing 
European War has served to deter us from embarking on that 
preliminary investigation into and more or less careful exami- 
nation of the Jewish material in the archives — not only of 
England but also of all the other Continental countries thus 
far reported on — which are an essential prerequisite to the 
farther development of the matter. Finally, and on this head, 
the committee deems it appropriate to describe briefly the 
nature and extent of certain documents contained in the 
English archives, for the purpose of eliciting a discussion, 



QitJ 



Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 93 

and, if possible, a resolution of direction in the future work 
of this committee thereon, in the Society itself. 

In that portion of Andrews' " Guide to the Materials for 
American History, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of 
Great Britain," which covers the departmental and miscel- 
laneous papers (vol. ii, p. 127 et seq., 1914), we are furnished 
with a detailed description of the Custom House papers and, 
more particularly, of the Port Books in the Public Eecord 
Office, London, contained under the rubric, " Exchequer 
K. R. Port Books." 

There are extant 1464 bundles of these Port Books, running 
in date from roughly 1275 to 1789. They begin to bulk large 
from Elizabeth's day, although quite a number of them are 
earlier. Each bundle contains from about eight to twelve 
books and, in the whole collection, there are to-day some thirty 
thousand parchment books of varying sizes. Originally there 
had been fifty thousand books; some were destroyed by fire 
a century ago and others disappeared through the carelessness 
or ignorant neglect of the earlier keepers of the records. 
Some of these papers had extraordinary adventures, particu- 
larly, by a curious stroke of fate, in the hands of booksellers 
in the city of New York. The Port Books, by the testimony 
of Prof. Andrews, are not easy to handle or use, whilst the 
form of the entries contained in them is such as to require a 
certain experience on the part of the one who attempts to 
read or make use of them. In his " Guide " Prof. Andrews 
presents examples of two or three of these entries, and, curi- 
ously or one may say characteristically enough, a Jewish item 
appears among them, viz. : 

London, 1696. In the Speedwell Jam. Moulton per Nevis Isaac 
Gomes als 14 lb wrot brass 18 doz plane Leather Gloves 4 1 wrot 
silk, 1 haberdashery 1 wrot iron One piece English lace att 
121 18s d. 

It will be at once apparent that we have in these documents 
an important, and, for our purposes hitherto unknown, source 



94 American Jewish Historical Society. 

of information on the subject of the participation of the Jews 
in the American colonial commerce. The Port Books took 
their origin in the altogether natural desire of the English 
government oflBcials to prevent frauds on the customs. The 
revenue officers were empowered to employ writs of assistance 
in order to procure the necessary details for the entries to be 
made in these books, if and when the merchants themselves 
did not do so voluntarily. The books were issued yearly to 
all customers, i. e., to the merchants making entries at the 
different ports, in tin boxes under the seal of the exchequer, 
and were returned regularly to the office of the King's Eemem- 
brancer. They were thus made up from the notes of the mer- 
chants themselves or the daily ledger entries of the local 
officials. 

The classification of the books, covering the details of the 
foreign and colonial trade, is, as follows : 

(a) customer's entries; 

(b) comptroller's entries; 

(c) searcher's entries; 

(d) surveyor's entries; 

(e) waiter's entries. 

Of the foregoing (d) and (e) are, apparently, only for the 
Port of London. We have the following particulars as to each 
entry in the Port Books, viz. : 

1. the date by year and month; 

2. the name of the ship, occasionally her tonnage or burthen, 

and the names of the master and shippers; 

3. her destination, if outward bound; the place of shipment, if 

inward bound; 

4. the amount, kind and value of the goods carried; 

5. the p,mount of customs revenue paid, etc. 

It will be observed, then, that the expert examination and 
use of this material should be of prime value to our researches, 
affording as it does tolerably full data as to the growth of the 
English export and import trade, the development of com- 



Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenberg. 95 

panies of merchant adventurers and ports, the history of colo- 
nial settlement and expansion, and the genealogy of mer- 
chants, making possible a unique statistical analysis of English 
trade and the outlines of the story of Jewish participation 
therein. 

In part 2, p. 45 et seq., of vol. i, of the " First Report of 
the Eoyal Commission on Public Records appointed to inquire 
into and report on the state of the public records and local 
records of a public nature of England and Wales " (Cd. 6395 : 
London, 1912) will be found interesting particulars of the 
Port Books, on which, it should be added, the present remarks 
are in a measure based. This commission, and especially Mr. 
Hubert Hall of H. M. Public Record Oflfice, its secretary, were 
the first to discover the value of the Port Books and to make 
this fact known to the body of students of history. Prof. 
N. S. B. Gras, of Clark University, who contributed a paper, 
" Some New Manuscript Sources for the Study of Modern 
Commerce," to the Annual Report of the American Historical 
Association for 1912, before this commission is reported to 
have investigated some four hundred of the Port Books, for 
his work on the early English grain trade. In a letter, dated 
October 23, 1914, he writes to me, as follows: 

It is my impression that the records in question, the English 
Port Books, would prove of great value in American Jewish his- 
tory. Nothing short of careful search and transcription of ex- 
tracts by someone on the grounds, would, however, be of much use. 
I have had about 800 photographs of the earlier series, 1275-1565, 
made for my particular purposes and I intend to publish these in 
a volume soon. I have nothing, however, of any value in your 
field. 

Prof. Andrews, again writing me, under date of October 
5, 1914, says: 

I can hardly doubt but that the Port Books would be of material 
value to you in giving the names of Jewish merchants and masters 
engaged in colonial trade. I did not examine altogether more than 
fifteen or twenty bundles containing perhaps a hundred or a 



96 American Jewish Historical Society. 

hundred and fifty books. I have an impression that I ran across 
Jewish names but I made no note of such. You will need to know 
that items of colonial interest are not over common and to use 

the books one will have to exercise much patience 

I may say that as a rule, the departmental books do not mention 
the names of individuals engaged in trade. Such names were not 
of interest to those whose business it was to make up statistical 
returns. In most cases the best results will be obtained from 
such records as registers, naval oflBce lists, sixpenny books, passes, 
and the libel files in the High Court of Admiralty, whence actual 
names can be obtained. My own feeling is that unless one comes 
across Jewish names of those engaged in commerce, more or less 
as an accidental happening in connection with other searches, he 
will have much discouragement before he will find such through 
any particular search. I do not recall meeting with any great 
number of such names. 

It must be noted, however, that Prof. Gras and not Prof. 
Andrews, made a careful and exact examination of a fairly 
large number of these Port Books. In this connection, also, 
it may be apposite to point out the excellent use that may 
be made of the Port Books in a special investigation. Mr. 
Worthington Chauncey Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society (Proceedings, vol. xlvii, p. 178 et seq.), furnishes an 
example of their employment in the case of his investigation 
of the details of the mercantile career of Governor John 
Winthrop of Massachusetts. 

I am of the opinion that these Port Books warrant and 
demand a patient, special and detailed examination from the 
point of view of this Society and its interests. Because of the 
vast amount of this extant material and of the difficulties, 
heretofore indicated, attending its thorough investigation, the 
funds at the committee's disposal are quite inadequate for the 
execution of such an intention. A special fund ought to be 
created to this end. 

In the case of the American Loyalist papers in the English 
archives, which Prof. Andrews describes in the second volume 
of his " Guide .... to 1783 . ..." (p. 262), and which 



Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenberg. 97 

may be found in the Audit Office, London, records under 
the rubric, "A. 0. Claims. Amer. Loyalists, 109," we have 
the advantage of possessing a complete and faithful transcript 
thereof in the New York Public Library. The documents 
cover the years 1784 to 1789 and comprise reports and state- 
ments affecting the Tories of the Revolution. They are pre- 
served in the special room for American history at Bryant 
Park, and may be called for by the title, "III. Transcripts 
of the MSS. Books and Papers of the Commission of Enquiry, 
etc." There are in this collection, in all, sixty volumes of 
folio size, and I have carefully gone through volume xi thereof, 
commissioners' reports, etc., which furnishes a useful and 
convenient index to the whole work. 

My examination disclosed the presence of exactly two Jews 
of undoubted identity as such in this Index of Loyalists, and 
I supply herewith the details of the entries affecting them, viz. : 



No. of Cert. 


Name of Claimant 


Province 


Claim for Loss 
of Property 


Sum originally 
allowed 


223 

281 


Franks David 
Hart Moses 


Pennsyl 
R. Isio 


£1125 
2000 


125 
1081 



Total sum payable 
under Act of Pari' 


Sum already 
received 


Ballance 

after such 

rec' 


Deduct a/c of 
Pension 


Final Ballance 


125 
1081 


37.10 
324.6 


87.10 
756.14 


'i 


87.10 
749.14 



In these records there are scores of other names of persons 
who bear what may be called, for better or worse, Jewish 
names, but they are very often found on a painstaking enquiry 
not to be names of Jews. I have rigorously excluded such 
from my notes. I have not done this for the purpose of em- 
phasizing or giving point to the special plea that the Jews of 
America during the Revolutionary War were almost to a man 



98 American Jewish Historical Society. 

adherents of the patriot cause, although this was the indubi- 
table fact, proved by the statements of contemporary observers 
and of other historical sources referred to here and there in 
our Publications, but for the reason that the United Empire 
Loyalists, as they have come to be known, whose affairs form 
the staple of these documents, settled in Canada and, more 
particularly, in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Maritime 
Provinces of the present Dominion, after the conclusion of the 
Treaty of Peace of 1783 between the United States and Great 
Britain. 

The Maritime Provinces of Canada received practically no 
Jewish immigrants before the anti-Jewish excesses in the 
Empire of the Czars in the preceding century compelled the 
Eussian Jew to become a wanderer up and down the rest of 
the habitable earth. Mr. M. J. Wessel, the headworker of the 
Henry Meinhard Memorial, a Jewish settlement-house in New 
York, with whom I was in correspondence, spent a portion of 
his vacation in the summer of 1914 in this section in the 
endeavor to discover the facts of Canadian Jewish history on 
the spot. He reported to me, in substance, as follows : 

Digby, N. S., has a population of 2000 souls, and only two 
families of Jews ever resided there. One of these moved away 
some time ago, whilst the other came to Digby in 1888. One 
section in the business district of the town is known as " Jew's 
Cove " or " Jew Cove," because, curiously enough several 
Irish merchants trafficking there upwards of thirty years ago 
had charged exorbitant prices for their commodities ! In 
Halifax and Sydney, N. S., there are Jewish communities 
embracing respectively forty families, but none of these pos- 
sesses what may be called a history. St. John, N. B., has a 
Jewish community of 260 persons, not of an ancient stock 
however, as is apparent from the fact that H. Green, president 
of a local congregation, came to St. John in 18Bl as a boy, his 
parents fearing the result of the American Civil War on their 
fortunes, and that his marriage to a Miss Hart was the first 
Jewish union celebrated in the Maritime Provinces. 



Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 99 

Therefore, it is fairly deducible from our knowledge of the 
history and conditions of the Jews in Canada that the two 
names of Jewish Tories, given heretofore, comprise practically 
all the Jews mentioned in the American Loyalist papers. 
Hence these documents may be adduced as an additional and 
tolerably positive proof that the Jews of America during our 
Eevolution were, quite uniformly, holders of the patriot 
fortunes. 

The items of Jewish interest found in the " Guide " of 
Prof. Marion D. Learned, of the University of Pennsylvania, 
to the German archives embrace several noteworthy matters. 
For one thing, they supply us with new sources of information 
and offer us hitherto undisclosed evidences of the activity of 
the Jews in various channels of public and quasi-public affairs. 
The identification of Jews in these records is facilitated by 
reason of the fact that the oflBcial writers, whose monuments 
are preserved in the papers of these archives, nearly always 
refer in characteristic German fashion to the Jews by the 
word or words of religious and racial definition. " Jude " or 
" der Jude " is the qualifying designation almost never absent 
from the German official pieces relating to the Jews, dating 
from the eighteenth and from practically the entire first half 
of the nineteenth century. Thus, at Marburg, in the archives 
of the mediatized landgravate of Hessen-Cassel, may be found 
a mass of material relating to the operations of one Philipp 
Marc, a sutler or commissary of the third English-Waldeck 
regiment of mercenaries, or Hessians, in our Eevolutionary 
War. His brother, Jacob Marc, was the court-factor of the 
landgrave, and we have in these archives long and circumstan- 
tial accounts of the supplies furnished the electoral house and 
its troops of mercenaries by one, the other or both of these 
Jewish brothers. This material is of considerable intrinsic 
interest and, besides, of added value from the fact that it 
supplies the student of American Jewish history with new 
names and new occupations of German Jews in those days, and 



100 American Jewish Historical Society. 

thus equips him with the necessary details to be used by him 
in filling in the picture of a philosophy of American Jewish 
history. 

The German archives, moreover, afford interesting addi- 
tional information regarding the life and the career of that 
Jew who is so well-known to our investigators as Jacob Phila- 
delphia, and concerning whom extended references may be 
found in the Publications of this Society. The archives, too, 
are important, and it may be said untapped, mines of knowl- 
edge on the genesis and the development of the immigration 
of German, especially Bavarian, Jews to the United States in 
the nineteenth century. This material is splendidly adminis- 
tered and is, or at least was up to the commencement of the 
European War of 1914, readily accessible. I happen to know 
that a Privatgelehrter of Munich, David Wassermann by name, 
has undertaken and, perhaps, completed by this time rather 
detailed studies in this archival material from the point of 
view of Jewish history, but regrettably cannot give any account 
of their general nature and serviceableness for our enquiry 
because of my inability to get into satisfactory communication 
with him. Our fellow-member, Mr. August Kohn, of Colum- 
bia, S. C, has in letters to the English- Jewish press of this 
country (see, for example. The American Israelite, May 1, 
1913) referred to the value and importance of Herr Wasser- 
mann's work, but, in a written statement to me, dated May 16, 
1913, he declares that at that time he could do nothing about 
it. I ought to add that Max J. Kohler, Esq., has knowledge 
of Herr Wassermann's activity in this line of archival re- 
search, for, I recall that, in the summer of 1912, he showed 
me a letter which either described or bore directly upon it. 
One further word : in attempting to utilize this almost super- 
abundant Bavarian material the student must be fully informed 
as to the locale of the Jewish settlements in that kingdom. 
The Jews, e. g., lived in villages like Dinkelsbiihl and Feucht- 
wangen, but they did not reside to an appreciable extent in 
Pforrinff, 



Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 101 

An item from the archives of the Grand Duchy of Baden, 
judging from the rather alluring reference to it in Prof. 
Learned's " Guide," seemed to possess great interest. Prof. 
Learned gave the follovs^ing particulars of it (p. 234) : 

6735. Matter relating to the scarcity of grain and bread and a 
contract with a certain Jew for 10,000 Centners for the troops, 
with the remark, that the emigration " in die sogenannte Land- 
schaft Pennsylvaniam " has contributed much to this state of 
things. 

I had it copied through the courtesy of the director, Ge- 
heimer Archivrat Prof. Dr. K. Obser, in Karlsruhe, and deem 
it appropriate, because of its early date and general interest, to 
give it here in extenso for suitable preservation in our records. 

Abschrift. Grossh. Oenerallandesarchiv Karlsruhe 

Akten Pfalz Generalia Nr. 6735. 
Praesentibus Heydelberq den 22'*°. 

Herren Geheimen Raths und May 1709. 

Regierungs Praesidenten Excellenz 
Freiherren von Hillesheimb 
Freiherren von Heuel 

Herren Geheimen Rath und Vice- 
kanzler von Mezger 
von Scherer 
Becker 
Liils 
Otto. 

Nachdeme der, in denen Chur Pfaltzischen sowohl als negst- 
anliegenden Landten je langer je mehr anwachsende Frucht- und 
Brodtmangel zu dem Auszug der Chur Pfaltzischen Underthanen 
in die sogenante Landtschafft Pensylvaniam und andere nicht 
wenig contribuiret; Vundt als man dahero bedacht gewesen, wie 
diessem iibel wenigstens in etwas gesteivret und das Landt von 
Underthanen nicht gar erostiget werden mbge; So ist 

Von allhiesigem Kriegs Commissariat zuevernehmen vorkom- 
men, wie dass ohnlangsthien von Ihme Kriegs Commissariat mit 
einem sicheren Judten, zue Behueff der Churpfalzischen Troup- 
pen auf 10000 Centnern Mehl ein Accordt getroffen worden 
seye, und weyllen dasselbe einer so grossen Quantitet in Anseh- 



102 American Jewish Historical Society. 

ung fast alle Regimenter nacher Brabandt, und anderstwo 
wiirklich abmarchiret, dermahlen nicht benothiget; So hielte 
man von Regierungs wegen, dafiir, dass bemelter Judt zue ad 
implirung des mit Ihme getroffenen Contracts und fordersamer 
Anschaffung, des Mehls an zuehalten, und so dan von solcher 
Quantitet Mehl denen Armen Nothleidenden Underthanen, zu 
ihrer Rettung sowohl, als auch zue evitirung ferenerer emi- 
gration eins weyllen mit einigen Tausendt Centnern Oder so 
viel das Kriegs-Commissariat fiir jezo entbehren kan, aus zue- 
helfen were, vund zwar dergestalt dass Sie die Underthanen 
ermeltem Kriegs Commissariat den von Ihme gethanen Vor- 
schuss nach der Erndte hien widerumb in natura und eadem 
qualitate et quantitate zue ersezen schultig seyn sollen, welches 
Ihrer Chur-Fiirstlichen Durchlaucht underthanigst zue hinter- 
bringen und deroselben dabey gehorsambst anheim zuegeben 
ware, ob Sie es also gnadigst zue aggreyren mithien mehr ge- 
dachtem Kriegs Commissariat disfals die Nothdurfft zue sou- 
lagierung der Underthanen bey gegenwertiger Brodtklemer 
Zeit anzuebefehlen gnadigst geruehen woUen. 

Freyh. C: W. v. Hillesheim mpria 
Freyhe. von Heuel mpria 

Mezgeb 

SCHEEEE 

F R Beckeb 
A LtJLS 
Otto. 

Comment is not required; the document speaks for itself 
and its Jewish interest, it must be confessed, is somewhat 
microscopic. The incident serves to show how much of dis- 
criminating care is required in any enterprise such as ours 
and how impracticable a long-distance searching of the archives 
is likely to be ! The enquiry must needs be conducted in the 
interest of the objects of the Society by trained investigators 
on the spot in the archives of the various countries we wish 
to examine. 

A more or less superficial examination of the contents of 
the Italian archives was made possible through the careful 
study of the " Guide " thereto of Prof. Carl E. Fish, of the 



Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 103 

University of Wisconsin. On p. 217 of Prof. Fish's book 
I came upon a reference to a letter of Christopher Columbus, 
addressed to Gabriel Sanchez, reposing in the Biblioteca Valli- 
celliana in Eome, belonging to the priests of the Oratory of 
St. Philip ISTeri. As noted it bore the date May 3, 1495, Dr. 
Cyrus Adler, the president of the Society, through the courtesy 
of the Hon. Thomas Nelson Page, American Ambassador to 
the Court of King Victor Emmanuel III, secured a copy of 
the letter in photographic facsimile. On this, our fellow- 
member, Dr. Abraham A. Neuman, Instructor in History in 
the Dropsie College, has made a report, indicating that the 
" 5 " should read " 3." 

The Department of Historical Eesearch of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington has been advised of the error to 
the end that the necessary correction may be made in fresh 
printings of Prof. Fish's valuable work. 

The committee asks to be continued, that the balance of the 
appropriation with which it has been provided be suffered to 
remain at its disposal, and solicits the favorable dispositions 
of the members of the Society to the end that a sum sufficiently 
large for the ambitious undertaking it proposes to initiate 
may be at its command." 

»See The Hebrew Standard, March 5, 1915; The Jewish Voice, 
March 12 and 19, 1915; The Jewish Ledger, ibid.; Jewish Com- 
ment, March 19, 1915, p. 307; March 26, 1915, pp. 316, 319; The 
Reform Advocate, October 23 and 30, 1915. 



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